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Sunday, March 20, 2011

DIY Cutlery Drawer Divider - on my $0 budget

I have always disliked (more accurately hated, but I taught my kids that hate is a strong word and it should not be used easily) the drawer divider for my cutlery. We have not been able to find one that fit perfectly into our drawers so we had to buy a 'standard' size one, and cut it so it fit. It never did fit properly, especially it was not wide enough so I had to place the large knives on the side of the divider.

So to continue with our "make it on a $0 budget" we made this:

I got the idea to make my own wood dividers for this post on Under the Table Dreaming. Stephanie Lynn used thin pieces of poplar wood to create dividers for her kitchen drawers but the wood she used still works out to be expensive here in Canada. Plus, I am still on my $0 spending limit for this month so anything other than what I had in the house is too much money! Before:

After:

So my husband came up with a great idea to use wood paneling board (I don't know what it is actually called) cut into strips. I originally purchased the 8 foot x 4 foot piece of materials for under $10 and had intended to do a magnet/chalk board for my son's room. I might still do that but we had lots of extra materials to play with.

We decided to make an outer box that fit perfectly into the drawer and then insert inner dividers. The reason I decided to do it this way, as opposed to gluing it to the sides of the drawer, is so I can take the wood divider out to clean all the crumbs and stuff that seems to mysteriously appear in with my cutlery.

We (again this means my husband) measured the width, height and depth of the drawer and cut long pieces to be the height of the outer drawer. We made an outer box by gluing (Gorilla Wood glue) and stapling the corners. If you don't have a stapler, you can do this with just the Gorilla glue. It is amazing stuff!

Once it was set, we cut more thin strips of wood (this time we made them 2.5 inches so it wasn't too deep to reach the cutlery) to make the inner dividers. I mapped out where I wanted the cutlery to be placed and my husband cut the wood to the exact measurements. We glued all the pieces together with some more Gorilla Wood Glue. Again..amazing stuff!

I really wanted a knife block divider in the drawer so my husband came up with the idea to use an old piece of cedar (I had from the Block letters that everyone in blog land has done..including me :) ) and he put 1.5 inch deep slits every 3/4 of an inch. He then he cut the bottom of the block off 3/4 of an inch below where the slits ended.

We placed the block with the slits and the extra piece that was cut off in the drawer. The knife blades fit in the slots and the handles rest on the extra piece.

Pretty amazing isn't it! I have to say my husband amazes me on a daily basis! Who would have thought an Electrical Engineer could build stuff...not me :)

I put that cheap rubbery bumpy gripy stuff under the divider and that is it!

The entire project took us about an hour and a half and cost us $0!! If I were to go out today to buy the materials, it would have probably cost us under $3 ...cedar is pretty expensive :) $0 verses the ridiculous prices they charge for these dividers! I will never buy another one!

One more AMAZING look! Come on, don't you agree this is a WOW moment?

The next project is to tackle my junk drawer..I don't think any divider will help that :)

Please let me know what you think. I really do love comments...it makes me know people are actually reading this.

Remember April 1st is the $0 Budget party here. Please stop by with your frugal ideas or stop by to see what others are doing on e $0 budget. Hope to see you all!

Oh I am reading and loving all that you are doing this month! Look at all things that you have completed......for free...yahoo! Maybe it is because you have more time on your hands when you are not shopping. ;)

I'm a first time commenter, but I wanted to say great job with this and your many other $0 ideas!!! I love reading them - they get me thinking of what I can recycle around my house into something ingenius... Keep it up :-)

AWESOME! And you bettya, your blog gets read by me everytime you post something, 'cos what you do is amazing. Keep at it, we all need to be inspired to spend $0 and be creative at the same time.Anne xx

OMG!!! I've been having the same problem--my drawer divider doesn't fit, looks yucky, despite cleaning it over and over again (how does dust and junk get in there? The drawer is closed almost all the time!!) Must get the HVAC technician husband who can build anything build one of these for me!!

Thanks for the idea and inspiration! I am so enjoying your blog. I look forward to seeing what you've come up with next!!!

Wow, very cool! I have been looking for trays without success that will hold (ahem - SIX) sets of flatware. Seeing your idea is perfect! I suddenly realized something I can build myself and get most of those sets into one large drawer.

I love this!! I have the same problem you do. I recently organized my junk drawer with dollar store bins. I definitely want to try your idea!! very awesome and I love your blog!andreawww.diydonedirtcheap.com

So thankful that I am not the only one, not happy with their utensil drawer, lol. I'm going to send this to my hubby cause I have two draws that are just screaming, what about me!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing!!!!

Amazing. I can never find one that fit our drawers and the one I have just slides around in there. I should totally do this, but we will see if it gets done before we move as my list is already so long.

I'm going to request one of these for my birthday! It will give my hubby a project to do out in his "man-cave" where "no gurls are allowed" LOL. Love it. Thanks so much for sharing! I need one of these for my weird utensil drawer. you know the potato masher, garlic press, extra lids drawer.

Thanks for the info, I was looking for the plans for one of these. Mine will be made of scrap oak since that's what I have kicking around the shop, and the Gorilla glue that I bought last year and never used. So it will be $0.

Very cool! I love the knife block part so much- we could definitely use one of those in our cutlery drawer. Also, I believe it's called fiberboard(the wood board). If you're anything like me, it probably drives you crazy not being able to remember the name of something! Have a great day - thanks for sharing this project!

This is amazing, it looks fantastic. Every woman's dream come true for a cutlery drawer. I have struggled with our drawer and organizing it and am a big believer in space saving also. We have a small kitchen with only 3 drawers in total that are usable since one is blocked from opening by the stove. lol. Not a well designed house to say the least. ;o)

We used dollar store plastic organizers for the junk drawer and for our cutlery used the same and a smaller dollar store cutlery tray. I tried to convince my husband to make one as you did but he thought it would be too hard and would cost too much to make. I will have to now show him this post and see if I can convince him otherwise and if not, I guess I will get the tools out again on my own and have a go at it. lol. I am more like my mom every day.

Thanks again, it is a beautiful work of art. Well done guys and very inspiring.

Wow - this looks amazing!!! Thanks for the tute!!! (and howcome I am the only one with a question!?) But here goes - are your inner dividers attached to the outer frame/box? (then you would have to cut the rubber grippy stuff for each box), or did you keep the inner dividers separate so you could have just one piece of grippy stuff? If you could answer me by email, that would be wonderful! (I think/hope you can find this from here.....)

Ok, I absolutely love this. I even have that same type of wood in the garage. I've been looking at ideas and wanting to reuse.. So.. One silly question for you hubby maybe. How did he cut the wood straight for all the pieces. I have a circular saw and a table saw. Maybe the table saw would do a nicer job? I find the circular saw more portable but the table saw is buried as if its a table in the basement now.. so, ideas on how to do that part would be very much appreciated.

Also, how do you keep the corners 90 degrees when putting them together, if you are just gluing.

Again, thanks for the awesome details. I love it and find it inspiring.

I did this a few years ago. I used some thin oak that was precut perfectly in height: all I had to do was cut the lengths. My only regret is that I didn't make a bottom side too. My house is 60 years old so the drawer sagged a bit. The silverware kept sliding under the dividers.

Thank you so much for the $0 inspiration!!! My husband has been unemployed for 2.5 months w/o pay from unemployment. He is a handyman by nature. I will have to get some Gorilla glue and maybe a flat board, but you are so inspiring! Did you glue the dividers in perpenticular to the wood base? and then cut the drawer liners to fit?

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Love it! I just did this using your tips and the results are fabulous. The only change I made was to use vinyl 12x12" adhesive tiles to line the drawer, then I didn't feel the need to make the box frame. I'll just get the vac out from time to time. This was WAY cheaper than the cutlery organizers I found, that didn't fit anyway. Thank you!

This was my pet peeve with my silverware drawer(s)! And like you, I could never find a decent drawer divider if my life depended on it!! Now this idea is very interesting and I will give it a try.. might have to invest some $ in it but will keep it cheap as possible! I will post a photo of it as soon as I get it done(also with my hubby) ;)

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hello Stephanie and thank you for posting the best cutlery drawer for the price. Could you pls tell me how thick is your hardboard? I prefer cm or mm if poss but otherwise inches is fine too. It looks like half a cm ( 5mm) but maybe it is 3 or 4 mm? Thank you kind regards from London

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About Me

I am a mom to two beautiful children and a wife to a wonderful husband. I am a full time mom and a part time project manager. I would love to say this blog is a hobby but I really believe it is my way of having something to call my own :)